GRVL.CC Bib Shorts review

The People behind GRVL.CC are first and foremost riders. I know this because I’ve been riding with them. What they also have is years of experience designing sportswear for other companies, some of them very big in the sports world. you’ve probably worn some of their designs but don’t know it.

The GRVL guys though wanted to produce products with more sustainability, in factories that are enviromentally friendly but still give the quality that they demand. All that is a tall order right?

They sent me out a pair of their GRVL bib shorts to try and I’ve been riding short and long distances in them over the last couple of months to see if that list of demands they’ve made for themselves translates into something comfortable to wear, because you can have the most ethical clothing in the world but if it doesn’t feel good when you ride you’re not going to keep wearing it.

The first thing you’ll notice is that these shorts look like they have a baggy short included and they kind of do, but its sewn into the traditional lycra leg and joins at the inner thigh seam. So it’s not a lycra short inside a baggy one, it’s permanently fixed too. GRVL say it’s to give the rider extra protection from the weather, dust and mud. The GRVL logo appears on one leg, this is actually a nightmare for photos because it’s the non drive side leg (otherwise known as the left) and all shots of the bike should be from the driveside, that’s an unwritten bicycle marketing rule right there. I kinda like they’ve gone against the rules, lets hope it’s deliberate!

The logo shows up in a couple of other places and is embossed on the shoulder straps and the bottom of the legs and is a nice stylish touch that makes them stand out from other shorts in this price bracket.

There are two rear pockets which I’d say were perfect for small snacks and gels etc. I did manage to get my phone in there (pixel 6) but had to position it sideways and stretch the pocket as in the vertical postion the pocket only just reached half way up the phone and it didn’t feel secure. Not really a fail on the shorts though as a phone isn’t what every rider stuffs in the pack pocket.

The fit is excellent, I usually take an XL size and these were a good fit, I’d have liked to try the next size down for a little more compression on the legs but when riding they felt spot on.

When I first posted a picture on my instagram account of these shorts I received a direct message from someone who had tried the shorts and said they wanted to warn me of the minimal padding on the chamois. GRVL say the chamois is for “comfort for rough terrain and big adventures” You can see from the picture that the padding isn’t as thick as some shorts on the market. I didn’t find this a problem when riding up to 60+ mile and lots of shorter rides. Not to be too graphic but my backside is well used to riding long distance on my saddle so it is a bit “hardened off”. A beginner rider might have a different view on this but I will say that too much padding is as bad non at all. The chamois does seem to breathe well though and I’ve been glad of this the last few weeks of high tempertures in the UK.

These shorts are not cheap, currently (July 2025) they retail at £185, not the most expensive shorts out there by any means but also not the most affordable. However, they are comfortable and the materials feel like quality. After numerous washes and abrasions from riding they still look good so GRVL have achieved that part of their wish list, the ethical side I take their word for as as I mentioned, they aren’t a faceless corporation, they actually go riding and I’d trust that over any fancy marketing campaign .

The extra baggy short look i’m not sure about. After a long time cargo pocket sceptic but now adopter I missed the leg pockets when riding.

The GRVL.CC bib short is comfortable over long distance, excells in it’s price bracket and manages to look different in a sea of similar looking bib shorts. Given the knowledge that they are striving for sustainability and if the integrated baggy short look is your thing then I’d definately consider these over a big name brand who just care about the profit margin.

Brooks England Open Factory Visit

I recently got invited to visit the Brooks England factory in Smethwick, Birmingham as they were having an open weekend and conducting tours of the factory. Of course I accepted, especially as the premises is only a 14 mile pedal from my house using the extensive local canal system.

It wasn’t until I looked into the intinery and the history of the company that I realised what an opportunity this was. Brooks haven’t opened their factory to the public for over 150 years so this literally could be a once in a life time visit!

Brooks have a long long history in cycling, if you are seriously into your cycling then you have probably heard of Brooks and their leather saddles. If you are not into cycling at all and are asked to describe or draw a bicycle saddle i guarrantee you will picture the traditional Brooks B17 saddle that has been in continous production for over 100 years.

It said that Brook’s founder John Boultbee Brooks, a horse saddle manufacturer since 1866 when the company was founded was unhappy at how the wooden saddle on his bike felt (we can all sympathise I’m sure) and decided he was going to make a better one out of leather and the first patent was filed in 1882. The company has been making saddles since then, it has been bought, sold, rescued and is now owned by Selle Royal who make all the non leather saddles in Italy but the Smethick factory continues to hand make saddles to this day.

The Day started with coffee and pastries in the factory loading bay and a tour of the bike makers and designers set up in the courtyard who were all known for their use of Brook’s saddles on their bikes. its the best coffee I’ve had in a loading bay ever! The factory is just how you’d expect one to look dating back that far, it could have been a movie set but all the old boxes and stock on the shelves were there for a reason, even the toilet block should be a listed building it was so authentic!

We then began the tour, guided by Steve who had been at the factory since he was 16 and he explained later he’s done pretty much every job in the factory from tea boy to machine press operator, even a stint in HR!

The tour progressed from the very vintage presses which were very loud to the cutting out of the leather which is soaked in water to soften it before it’s put into a press/shaper. Some of the machines were over 100 years old and i asked one of the guys, what happens when one of these machines that hasn’t been in production for so long breaks? He said, we just make a new part from scratch for it and if we can’t do it Birmingham’s renowned jewelry quarter is a couple of miles away and there are small factories there that can make anything you want.

Everything is done in house apart from the tanning of the leather which is done in Belgium. No UK company can cure the British hides to Brook’s exacting standards

The sights, sounds were outstanding but the smells in the factory were what made the experience so visceral.

we saw springs and saddle frames being bent into shape using, quite frankly lethal looking machines which undoubtedly back in the day didn’t have all the safety guards they do now attached to them.

we went from raw materials through to the finishing touch of riveting the Brooks logo, also stamped in house, to the saddles. At every stage there was a human operating the machinery, it was mass production but on a much smaller and personal scale than I’d expected before visiting.

As we walked around I took the time to chat to the staff working there and I asked one candidly if they were amused that all these people were interested to see and photograph all the small parts of what must be a mundane everyday job to them and he said, no, he was proud that there was interest and he loved being there and what they do, of the people i chatted to the shortest time working there was 16 years, so they must like it!

It was an incredible day, i can honestly say one of the best things I’ve done as part of running UKGRAVELCO, I could have stayed there watching the process all day and not been bored. totally not how i thought it would be. The day was so well organised, fascinating and the people so friendly, open and warm.

No robots, no CNC machines just skilled craft persons shaping metal and leather into some of the best cycling products on the market. What made it great for me was being able to chat to the people on the factory floor and despite it being their day job the enthusiasm and pride in the company came through.

You can get a bit blasé when you read the phrase “hand made” but now I know the true meaning and value of that label. With Brooks England though I think that also includes pride and maybe a little love in every product too.

Massive thanks to @brooksengland and @extra_uk for inviting me. you can see all the products that Brooks manufacture here Brooks england and if it doesn’t take another 150 years for them to open the factory to the public again make sure you are on that tour!

all the black and white professional pictures were taken by Dan Phillips Photography the less professional colour ones by me!

Below is a little video I took of the tour

CES Sport Graean Carbon Wheelset Review

This is going to sound obvious, but wheels are the most important part of a bicycle, after all it wouldn’t be a bi-cycle if it didn’t have a minimum of two wheels right? However the humble wheelset is often over looked when buying a bike. The shiny flamboyant (or drab, your choice obvs) paint job is the first thing you see right before you check out the gears and brake groupset that is on your potential purchase. Well, here’s the thing, bike manufacturers know this and so a fancy paint scheme and a chi-chi rear derailleur are added to turn the buyers head. The reality is the hidden bits, the bottom bracket, the finishing kit (handlebars, stem, seatpost etc) are never going to be more then functional unless you are spending a LOT of money. This is fine, all these parts are easily replaceable or upgradable in the future lifetime of bike ownership, they get the job done to start you off.

Unfortunately this lower standard of component also extends to those very important hoops that are your interface with the terrain you are riding on (apart from tyres, again, easily upgradeable when they wear out) and this is a shame as a good set of wheels can really improve the ride of a bicycle. Most original equipment wheels will come with basic bearings, heavy hubs and rims and may or may not be tubeless compatible should you choose to run without inner tubes.

So one of the first things I’d suggest you upgrade on a bike is the wheelset but this is going to be more expensive than swapping out a saddle or handlebars, not everyone is made of money so what you need to look for is affordability, build qualilty, ease of maintenance and ride characteristics.

Most of those wheels that come on a new bike will have been put together on a wheel building machine, these are wonderous things that literally take minutes to go from a set of hubs, spokes and rims to a fully built wheel and there maybe a cursory quality control check at the end of that production line but they will have been built to a price and will be nowhere near the quality or have the attention to detail afforded to them that a set of hand built wheels do. But hand built wheels cost mega bucks…dont they?

CES sport came to my attention when they followed me on instagram, I’ll admit it was the first I’d heard of the company and I did a bit of internet searching and read their bio and saw that after supplying wheels to the triathlon community they had branched out into gravel with their “Graean” wheelset. Unusual name you think to yourself, well not if you hail from Wales, which is where CES Sport is based “Graean” is the Welsh word for Gravel! I messaged Joe, the founder of the company and asked if he was willing to send a pair of wheels for review, with the usual caveat that It would be a honest review and that given the state of my local trails the wheels were not going to get an easy life. Joe was fully confident in the wheels and sent a pair out to me.

I asked that the only thing they should come with was tubeless valves as I intended to mount my own tyres. this is because I have a working knowledge of how those tyres behave so as not to muddy the water of the wheel review by getting used to a new tyre’s handling characteristics. I added tubeless tape, sealant and a pair of WTB Resolutes and then swapped rotors and cassette from my usual wheels, but before this I weighed both wheels (with valves) and they came out at 1670g. exactly the weight claimed on the CES Sport website, this was a first for a review!

There’s a choice when you buy the wheels of having Bitex hubs or DT Swiss 350 hubs, I let Joe choose these and they came with the DT Swiss. These hubs ran smoothly throughout the test period although they did freak me out a little as I’m used to the loud buzz of Hope hubs and the DT Swiss were near silent. Talking of which, these deep section 35mm rims were also silent. A lot of deep section carbon road rims emit a frankly horrific rumble on tarmac that you can hear from miles away. (how you can ride with that noise I do not know) maybe it’s the higher volume tyres on a gravel bike that quiet them down but either way I was relieved at this characteristic.

The rims are 25mm across internally and 32mm across externally. My 42mm tyres seated first time with a track pump and sat with a pleasing round profile. The rims are not hookless so you are not confined to a few compatible tyres. They are built with Sapin j-bend spokes and brass nipples….yes! This may not mean anything to you but it ensures the wheels are easy to maintain, spokes are easy to source if you break one and the nipples are external. Too many wheelsets have fancy, hard to find proprietory bladed spokes. They have aluminium nipples that can corrode (react with the steel spoke) and break and the nipples are sometimes hidden in the rim meaning its a tyre off scenario just to true a wheel. This approach by CES is to be applauded, it may add a few grams but I’d rather have ease of maintenance any day.

So on paper they sound good but how did they ride? Well I did not give them an easy life at all. My local trails are already hub deep in mud in places, soft ground and bridleways heavily used by our horsey friends see to this so they’ve had a baptism of ~~fire~~ mud. Mix this with a liberal scattering of leaves and a close fitting front mudguard and this saw the rim walls scaped with all sorts of trail detritus. I’m writing this in the garden now looking at the wheels drying in the pathetic bit of sun we have today after being washed and they look absolutely unscathed…..apart from a slight peel on a sticker, I’m told though that this is the demo wheelset and the stickers will be different on production rims.

The wheels are noticably stiffer than my usual aluminium rimmed wheels, out of the saddle flinging the bike from side to side to try and flex them there was no tyre rub on that close fitting mudguard, something that is very noticable on my normal wheels. It gives you the feeling that all the effort you put on the pedals is being transfered into forward motion. I did drop the pressures of the tyres by a couple of psi as at 32-35 on really rocky ground it did become bumpy but that seemed to do the trick and they became as comfortable as my usual wheels but without any squirmy feeling.

When you ride a wheelset for the first time after its been built the spokes tend to ping and bang a bit as they seat and you should check for trueness, these wheels through did not do that. This I put down to attention to detail from the builders. This is the difference between those bog standard wheels that come on your new bike and a set of hand built wheels, someone has taken the time to check their work and taken pride in doing so. Yes, the components are off the shelf, the rims are almost certainly built to spec in China (the DT Swiss hubs almost certainly are) but here they are chosen for a job rather than the price point being the be and end all, the fact that this set of wheels come in at an affordable, compared to other carbon wheels, price of less than £1200 (less than £950 for the other hubs) makes them stand out of the crowd.

The CES Sport Graean Carbon wheelset rides and works well, They are easy to maintain, are comfortable but still stiff and with the build quality and ease of tubeless set up I can’t think of a downside……oh no wait, If they had a stealthier sticker they’d be spot on, I guess thats the triathlon influence!

you can find more details on the CES Sport website here (not an affiliate link)

Checkout the video review of the wheels below, If you like or dislike this video please take the time to subscribe to my YouTube channel. It costs nothing but makes a huge difference to me

Do You Believe The Hype?

I’ve been called many things over the years but probably the most annoying is that I’m an “influencer” Now you might say as I publish online reviews, you tube videos and have a instagram following that that is exactly what I am and up to a point I suppose you are right and also wrong, let me explain.

Back in 2018 I was working in the bike industry, selling and fixing bikes in a local bike shop. These new fangled “gravel bikes” had started to be a thing. Of course I wanted one and even tried to get as near to the concept as I could by adapting a hard tail MTB with narrow tyres and a rigid fork. A year later I was lucky enough to be allowed to ride the shop demo gravel bike, a Trek Checkpoint (check the dropdown above for a review of that bike) which I absolutely loved. At that time there were so many companies that were jumping on that gravel band wagon it was really confusing for the ordinary rider to know what was good, what was essential and what just wasn’t fit for purpose. No one really has the cash to throw away on a bike or product that the media tell you you need but in reality is so far from quality or purpose that you might as well just set fire to your pound notes (remember real money?)

So I decided to start UKGRAVELCO on instagram to share my pictures and repost others snaps to inspire people to ride and quite frankly to find people to ride with. I started to be inundated with messages asking my opinion on this or that bike, that wheelset, what should i wear etc etc you get the picture. At the time there was a lot of media attention for gravel, lots of articles online and in magazines (they existed back then!) and many pro riders and those with lots of followers recommending kit. All well and good you might think. However, working in the industry I’d had some of that kit that’d been recommended as essential in my hands and well I didn’t agree. It was then I launched ukgravelco.com to try and give an honest, balanced look and review on some of these items.

I started with bikes or kit I already owned and knew that worked or didn’t and this proved popular. I gained followers at a fast rate and traffic to the website was good. I was able to show this data and contacted a few companies and distributors to see if I could review some of their kit, always with the premise that it was at their risk. If i liked the product I would say so, but also if I thought it was lacking I’d put that in print too. It was a risky move, but I wasn’t doing it to make a living from the reviews, I was doing it to help others and yea, it was fun too. Luckily quite a few companies and marketing people had confidence in their products and sent them to me to try out.

“i bet you get to keep all that stuff you get sent” is a sentence I hear a lot and the answer is yes and a definate no. Understandibly no one wants clothing or shoes back after I’ve worn them for a few weeks, especially bib shorts! Bikes and wheels definately have to go back and a few times at my expense too. I’ve also agreed to review kit I can give away in a competition afterwards either in a straight free competiton with a random winner or by buying a ticket where all the profits go to a charity or good cause such as Nil’s Rider Resilience project.

“How much do you get paid to review stuff?” honestly, nothing, not a thing. Now this is really what inspired me to write this article really. This was because I recieive quite a lot of offers of product that comes with a ready written script from the manufacturer, that script is what they want you to write about their stuff. Basically a glowing review before I’ve even had the product in my hands. This comes usually with a sweetner of keeping the item or the promise of commission. I’ve even had emails asking how much I charge for a positive review! Needless to say I’ve always declined these offers. So have peace of mind that all the reviews on ukgravelco have not been paid for upfront or scripted by someone with a vested interest in having a good review.

I reviewed the ASS Saver Win-Wing last year after writing an email to see if they would send me one to review. I loved it, it’s such a simple idea that really works. I wrote a review and made a a video that got lots of attention. When Ass Savers produced the mark 2 win-wing they asked if I’d like to try one out to see the differences between the original and the new one. Of course I said yes. they liked the ensuing video so much they shared it and offered me a discount code to share with my followers. This was post review and not before it was written/filmed. This was something new to me and it came with what the industry calls a “kick back” This meant every time someone used my code ( GARYW_10 ) they would get 10% off their order and I would get a small percentage of that discount, This was a dilemma, would this compromise my neutrality? I decided that as i believed in the product so much and would recommend it anyway I would agree to it. After all the website hosting and domain does not pay for itself, plus a lot of the products I review I’ve paid for in full from my own money. So full disclosure, for one Ass Saver sale of £20.34 i receive £2.85.

All this is handled by an affiliate company. Usually an advertisement company or media company who handle publicity/promo codes and links for many companies at once. The company that handle ass-savers send out the codes and handle commission, if any and that’s not guaranteed. Most times when you see a link to a product at the end of a review it’s an affiliate link, if you click on it then either the reviewer or the website that is paying the reviewer to write the review gets a percentage kick back. This is why I’ve started putting a disclaimer next to any link I post that it isn’t an affiliate link.

It was while browsing the extensive list of companies on the affiliate website that I noticed that a good many of the accounts of “influencers” I follow on instagram had nearly all the cycling affiliate offers listed on their accounts. In some cases it was almost a carbon copy of the list. Taking a closer look at their content where they are saying “look at what I’ve been sent/this is the best thing ever” etc etc and seeing the long list of discount codes and links in their bio they are getting a kick back for every one. Honestly half the stuff listed i would not even give the light of day too. I get sent an email if there’s a new affiliate opportunity and It’s become a ritual to go to this account and see how long before they announce that they can’t live without that particular product and oh, here’s a discount code so you don’t miss out.

Is this influencing? I guess it is. I feel it’s wrong and this is why I do not like being called an influencer. I’ve had chats with a few cycle industry companies recently about reviewing the latest products and in all cases I own items they’ve produced in the past already, paid for with my own money and the subject of earning a kick back for reviewing their product has come up and I’ve said that I believe in their product and that I’d recommend it anyway regardless of kick back.

This is the only way I can go forward, I can’t continue reviewing without being totally honest. If there’s any offer code then I’ll be upfront about any kick back and I won’t be agreeing to that until I’ve properly seen and tested the item.

So choose your influencer carefully, there are genuine reviewers out there that will only take kick back on products they really believe can make a difference to your riding but unfortunately there are those who clearly are only in it for the money.

This may be old news to you, it may open your eyes and make you look at any review or influencer with a pinch of salt and if it’s the latter it’s been worthwhile writing this. No pictures on this one as I didn’t think it was fair to use unrelated pictures just to fill out the article and implicate any company, product or dare I say influencer wrongly

if you’d like to support these honest reviews and ukgravelco.com then please consider following this page, the instagram channel, subscribing to the youtube channel all of which are free to do or buying something from the ukgravelco shop, links below, non of which are affiliate

https://www.instagram.com/ukgravelco/

https://www.youtube.com/@ukgravelco

https://ukgravelco.bigcartel.com/

Flat pedals on a Gravel Bike?

Crank brothers Stamp 2 and HT PAO3A pedal review

In a recent poll on my instagram channel @ukgravelco I asked what things put people off trying a gravel bike. Overwhelmingly the highest results, apart from the cost of a gravel bike, was that people didn’t want to have to wear lycra and didn’t want to use clip in pedals.

Well spoiler alert from the start, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WEAR TIGHT CLOTHING OR USE CLIP IN PEDALS if you don’t want to. That is part of the beauty of gravel biking, because it’s relatively new there are no rules and long may this continue! As a clip in pedal user on the gravel bike myself it got me thinking that maybe I should try riding on the gravel bike with flat pedals to back up my above statement. I do use flat pedals when riding my mountain bike so I’m no stranger to the concept but that is used for a majority of off road riding. Gravel riding has a lot more potential tarmac riding (where i live at least) so that could make a difference. there was only one way to find out.

The guys at Extra UK and Ison Distribution the distributors of Crank Bros and HT respectively agreed to send me a pair of pedals. I decided to try an affordable pedal, the HT PAO3A (not the snazziest of titles) which at time of writing costs £60 at full RRP and the Crank Bros Stamp 2 (see what they did there?) at £100 RRP to see what the difference would be by spending a little more.

the Crank Bros Stamp 2 pedal is from their quite extensive flat pedal range which they have been producing for a long time, so they know what makes a good flat pedal. They come in two sizes, this version is the large and the basic rule of thumb is to size the pedals according to your shoe size, there’s a guide on the Crank Bros website for this. The Body of the pedal is made from aluminium. It comes with 10 10mm removeble pins per side, has a steel spindle and the pedal spins on an inner ignus bearing and twin cartridge bearings on the outside. They are only available in silver or black and have a 5 year warranty. They weigh 494g on my kitchen scales.

The shape of the body allows maximum mud shedding room and if you look from the side the pedal is concave, so the outer edge is higher than the spindle allowing your foot to “sit in” the pedal for maximum grip and security from slippage. it’s quite difficult to photograph this but check the video below for a better example of this.

the HT PAO3A pedal in contrast is made of glass reinforced nylon with two in mould pins and 8 replaceable pins per side. Again HT make a huge range of pedals and these come with DU bushings and one dual sealed bearing. The platform is just a hair smaller than the Stamp but weighs less at 351g on my not very accurate kitchen scale. the platform also has the concave shape that is essential in a flat pedal. It comes in just about every colour you can think of and as its “composite” (plastic) there’s no worry about it looking tatty after a few rock or gravel strikes as there’s no paint to flake off.

In use both pedals have performed flawlessly offering up oodles of grip in all situations. Now, as a clip in pedal user usually on the gravel bike, i found myself automaticaly twisting my foot to unclip such was the amount of adhesion to my foot when dismounting.

Pedal dynamics wise there’s a theory that clip in pedals are more efficient and give more power as you can push down and pull up but in the real world unless you are racing or analysing efficiency to a microscopic level I don’t think there’s a great difference, not one that would bother me out for a leisure ride anyway. Both these pedals shed mud 100% better than a clip in pedal. If you ride in the UK this is almost a year round problem. Clogged pedals and shoes can stop engagement between the rider and the pedal, not what you want in slippery downhil situations. Both the Crank Bros and HT pedals were there and accessible in all muddy foot out, flat out scenarios.

So which is the best? well there’s not a lot in it to be honest, the bearings in the Crank Bros pedal seem nicer and spin well without stiction, the HT bearings feel smooth but spin the pedal and it soon stops, this maybe though because the bearing seals are so good. The Crank bros pedal does feel more robust being made of metal and looks like it’d take more knocks at the expence of a bit of paint and are approx 100g over the HT but it does come with a 5 year warrant.

Grip wise there’s nothing in it though. Both are at the top of their game, so i guess it comes down to that warranty and the slightly nicer bearing for me to prefer the Stamp pedal, but then I can put up with silver, if you want a colour and pay a lot less ££ then there are no drawbacks to the HT pedal.

check out the video below to see the pedals in action

New Year, New Me (& all that bollocks)

2023, what a year! Or was it? I can’t actually remember what my New Years resolution was, probably something about doing more cycling (predictable), riding different places (yep, that old chestnut) with lots of new people (ok, that happened but only up to a point).

I’m writing this in the pub with a pint in my hand, so forgive the spelling and the rambling style. After reading a post on instagram from @ipulledthepin, I realise I’ve been doing the New Year thing all wrong. Lindsey says instead of the usual, “Im going to change, get a bikini body, get promotion, be positive” bullshit that flies around at this time of year mostly by Gyms trying to shame people into joining you should just focus on one word to see you through the year. Lindsey’s word for 2023 was “soften” here’s a link to why she chose that word, she can explain it, much more eloquently than me.

So what is my word? I’ll come to that later but first lets talk about 2023 and those goals previously mentioned. I don’t think I achieved any of them. Did I ride in loads of new places? No. I’d say 80% of my rides were from the door. Did I meet new people? One or two but again I’ve mostly ridden with the same few friends, but even that seems to have been reduced this year for some reason. Have I done more cycling? Again no, around my average 4500 miles for the year.

So has 2023 been a massive fail? Up until today I’d have said yes! It’s funny how reading one post on Instagram can change your whole perspective on things but @ipulledthepin has done that today.

I’ve had a few health issues that have knocked my confidence, making long term plans awkward and the thought of bike packing a bit of a terror. I’ve said no to a lot of invites because of the “what if” demons and not wanting to let anyone down by pulling out at the last minute and felt low about it. I’ve forced myself to go and ride when not feeling great and as you’d expect, it hasn’t made the experience as enjoyable as it should have. All this comes with the worry that people will stop asking If I don’t go. Hopefully that won’t happen.

Thankfully just the simple act of riding my bike has helped with the head games even if at times it’s been hard to motivate myself to get out and ride. That’s a sentence I never thought I’d write!

So in the spirit of balance lets look at the positives of 2023. UKGRAVELCO continues to go from strength to strength, thanks to all of the people who interact with it and allow me to repost their stuff on instagram. Thanks to those who have joined the Facebook page, comment on posts on all the channels and to all the companies and distributors who have trusted me to give a fair and honest review of their products.

By far the biggest thrill for me this year has been the popularity of the UK GRAVEL COLLECTIVE youtube channel. This one here.This time last year it had around 400 subscribers and it’s now up to around 1100! Thanks to everyone who has subscribed to it or liked the videos. It has definately been hard work but so much fun and again a motivator for me to get out there. Thanks to everyone who has had to endure me whipping a camera out on group rides, asked them to ride things over and over and to all the non cyclists wondering why a bearded bloke on a bike is riding along no handed while talking to himself into a camera lens. Hopefully the growth of the channel will continue and the production values will get a bit better too! 🙂

Enough retrospection, lets look forward to 2024. I was asked by John from wildcycles.cc what my plans were for the year and I had to say I’d made none. I can update that with the fact that yesterday, I tentitively agreed to attempt the Traws Eryri (trans Snowdonia) route with a good friend and regular cycling buddy. I may live to regret that! That lack of planning frames what I thought I’d do for 2024, namely just play it by ear and see what happens. Not putting pressure on myself to do a certain amount of miles, go to important events where I (probably mistakenly) think I need to be seen to promote ukgravelco will be a good thing for me. Less pressure (I have a day job too, this cycling stuff after all is just my hobby), will hopefully mean I actually do more riding.

So following @ipulledthepin’s example we come to my word for 2024. No New Year, New Me bollocks. my word will be THANKFUL

I want to appreciate what I’ve got, I’m very privileged compared to a lot of society, I have a job, I have spare time to do something frivalous like ride a bicycle for fun rather than for work. The recent passing of Nils Amelinckx has made me realise that even the shortest ride (or just waking up in the morning) is a gift that not everyone gets. It doesn’t matter if I don’t enter a certain number of events, If I don’t pin a race number on my bike again nothing bad will happen. Thankful to feel the first warm spring sun on my face, Thankful to get to the bottom of a dodgy descent in one piece while giggling to myself that I survived it! Thankful I’ve got friends and riding buddies that will turn out for some hair brained ride idea like tossing pancakes! and thankful if I inspire one person to ride a bike for the first time or the 10000th time it will be a victory and I want to be thankful I’m able to do it.

What would your word for 2024 be?

Shimano Deore CS-M5100 cassette

With the current war of ratios that is going on between Shimano and Sram over who can shoe horn the biggest sprocket onto their 12 speed cassettes ,at time of writing, Sram has gone one better with 52T over Shimano who introduced 51T just to outdo Srams 50T from a while ago…phew! it was refreshing to see that there are options further down the price scale that don’t need a specific freehub to work. Shimano 12sp needs their propitiatory “Micro Spline” freehub and in turn to run Sram big cassettes in most cases you need their “XD” driver.

However if you haven’t invested in the 12sp technology yet and are still running 11 speed then there is now a very good alternative from Shimano. The Deore M5100 cassette which happily fits straight on to the standard Shimano freehub that everyone running the big “S’s” gears already has. Before this new cassette the biggest sprocket on a 11sp Shimano cassette was 46T which is a very low gear indeed and originally ideally suited to a mountain bike. It does suffer though from a hug gap between the penultimate sprocket and that 46t, namely 37t-46t. I ran this cassette through the winter months on my gravel bike on a set of 650b wheels with much knobblier tyres than those I use in the drier months as my local terrain is very muddy and clay rich so i need all the traction i can get for the seated climbing necessitated to stop the wheel from spinning out. The gap was very annoying and when I needed a slightly lower gear than the 37t to stop stalling (I’m no climbing super hero as you can tell) the big jump to 46t was too great and I ended up loosing balance as my legs spun wildly.

The solution pt1

to over come this i butchered a 11-42t cassette, removing the 15t sprocket and adding a very second hand expander sprocket which used to be all the rage before huge cassettes but seem rare these days. This sprocket had 45 teeth so making the final jump between cogs 42-45t which was much better and this is what i ended up running for most of the damp months. Unfortunately the horrible gritty/grinding local conditions all but destroyed the cassette and chain (ok, i should have checked the chain wear more regularly) so knowing that the new Deore cassette was imminent I nursed that chain and cassette for as long as possible until my local bike shop called to say the new cassette had arrived!

The Solution pt2

The Deore M5100 has a ratio of 11-13-15-18-21-24-28-33-39-45-51T and those last 3 sprockets are very evenly spread so even tough the gaps are bigger than at the other end of the cassette the transition is easier to keep a good cadence on and aids balance and traction as your legs aren’t all over the place when concentrating on traction and line choice. The smaller sprockets are much closer in range and this is a good thing as on a gravel bike this is where you will mostly be sat. Small ration changes enabling smooth pedaling and letting you carry your speed on tarmac and less technical off road sections. the new cassette was 70g heavier than my modified 11-45 extended cassette)

Lucky?

M5100 in action

When I came to fit the cassette I was expecting to have a fight to get it to work, probably requiring a rear hanger extender/road link but i thought i’d try it out first anyway. I did fit a complete 116 link chain ( the old one was left this long too to accommodate the 11-45/46T) , set the clutch to on and with trepidation cycled through the gears. As you can see from the video, I was lucky and it worked straight away without any modification. I didn’t even have to adjust the “B” screw it was fine on the setting from the previous cassette. Please note if you try this your set up may be different! it’s not my fault if you damage anything!

So there it is, as mountain bike cassette on a gravel bike. the rest of the gearing is all GRX 810 with a 1 x 40 chainring. the 51t sprocket gives very very very low gearing and other than deliberately trying it out when riding I doubt if I’ll ever use it on this bike. the next sprocket down tends to be my extreme sit and spin gear. However for a heavily laden touring or bike packing bike that has done away with the fuss of a double (or triple) chainset this could just be what you are after at the end of a long day with that last long steep incline to grind up.

The cassette has now done a couple of hundred miles around my local area and is so far trouble free so I’m in no hurry to swap it for something less silly. in fact i’m going to get one for my mountain bike as the cost of the cassette is much less than the cost of upgrading to 12 speed to get that extra gearing and who needs that extra one tooth (sram)?